The Heron’s Nest (Home)

The Editors and Web Master of The Heron’s Nest are very pleased to share with you the overall results of the Readers’ Choice voting for favorite poems and poets in The Heron’s Nest, Volume IX, 2007. If you would like to read the entire awards issue, which includes the winning poems and poets along with commentary, special mentions, and many insightful comments by voters (on specific poems and on the voting process in general), please order the paper edition of Volume IX which also features the winning artwork from our third annual illustration contest. For thumbnail sketches of the art, please visit http://www.theheronsnest.com/haiku/1001y1539/2007_illustration_contest.html.

Copies of Volume IX are due to be sent out early in April. They’ll contain the quarterly issues plus complete results of the Readers’ Choice Awards. For ordering information, please navigate to http://www.theheronsnest.com/journal/.

Many thanks to all of you who, during the busiest season of the year, managed to find time to peruse the 485 haiku we published in The Heron’s Nest in 2007 and vote for your favorites. It is a pleasure to announce that a record number of voters cast ballots. Eighty-eight!

This year’s Grand Prize winner in both categories (Poem of the Year and Poet of the Year) will receive an engraved plaque. The three runners-up in each category will be awarded certificates.

And now on to the results!

* * * * * * * * * *

FAVORITE POEMS

Grand Prize: POEM OF THE YEAR (20 votes totaling 165 points)

buffalo bones
wind less than a whisper
in the summer grass
            — Chad Lee Robinson

First Runner-up: (19 votes totaling 150 points)

circle of lamplight —
I complete the baby quilt
begun for me
            — Carolyn Hall

Second Runner-up: (13 votes totaling 90 points)
between windows
the space the spider
lived and died
            — Tom Clausen

Third Runner-up: (13 votes totaling 79 points)
silted river
an old doe turns
to face the flow
            — John Barlow

This category results from totaling the number of points awarded to each poet for their entire body of work in Volume IX. The most poems one can have accepted into The Nest each year is eight. Obviously, the more poems a person publishes, the more chances he or she has for garnering votes. It follows that success in the Readers’ Choice Awards is significantly affected by a poet’s earlier success in having work accepted by the editors throughout the year. Two poets had eight poems in Volume IX. One poet had seven poems published and eight poets had six published.

To put into perspective how well the winners did: The average total points for combined works this year was 31.

GRAND PRIZE: POET OF THE YEAR (45 total votes for 6 of 6 poems = 330 pts.)

Chad Lee Robinson

First Runner-up (36 total votes for 8 of 8 poems = 230 pts.)

John Stevenson

Second Runner-up (33 total votes for 6 of 6 poems = 228 pts.)

Carolyn Hall

Third Runner-up (29 total votes for 8 of 8 poems = 155 pts.)

Yu Chang

We would also like to commend the following new or relatively new contributors for garnering well over the average total point-score of 31.

Susan Constable: 4 of 5 poems received votes totaling 68 points
Lorin Ford: 4 of 5 poems received votes totaling 66 points
Keiko Izawa: 2 of 3 poems received votes totaling 55 points
Kevin James: one poem receiving 49 points

Some of our regular contributors were high in the standings:

John Barlow: 5 of 6 poems received votes for a total of 133 points
Burnell Lippy: 6 of 6 poems received votes totaling 116 points
Tom Clausen: 2 of 2 poems received votes for a total of 100 points
Alice Frampton: 4 of 5 poems received votes for a total of 83 points
Hilary Tann: 6 of 6 poems received votes for a total of 81 points
paul m.: 4 of 6 poems received votes for a total of 80 points
William Cullen, Jr.: 4 of 5 poems received votes for a total of 74 points
Sandra Simpson: 4 of 5 poems received votes for a total of 68 points
Christopher Patchel: 3 of 4 poems received votes for a total of 59 points
George Swede: 5 of 6 poems received votes for a total of 59 points
Collin Barber: 3 of 5 poems received votes for a total of 57 points
Audrey Downey: 4 of 4 poems received votes for a total of 56 points
Michael McClintock: 3 of 4 poems received votes for a total of 54 points
D. Claire Gallagher: 4 of 4 poems received votes for a total of 54 points
LeRoy Gorman: 4 of 5 poems received votes for a total of 51 points
Victor Ortiz: 4 of 4 poems received votes for a total of 51 points
Paul Pfleuger, Jr.: 3 of 3 poems received votes for a total of 51 points

On behalf of the Editors and Webmaster of The Heron’s Nest,

Applause for the winners of the 2007 Readers’ Choice Awards for having written haiku with great power, leaving lasting impressions on so many of your peers!

Gratitude also to everyone whose haiku appeared in The Heron’s Nest last year. Your work passed through a team of five critical editors to get there.

Christopher Herold